1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of telephones, especially cellular telephones, and more particularly to a telephone ring system that identifies a caller as belonging to a group of possible callers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known in the art to use different telephone rings to identify different types of incoming traffic or calls. Special rings have been used to identify the difference between an incoming long distance call and a local call or the difference between an internal PBX call and a call coming in from an outside line. Cellular telephones have used different rings to identify incoming calls, messages, pages, missed calls, voice mail and the like.
Borland in U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,239 teaches methods for identifying the callee of an incoming call. A distinctive ring can be selected for different people who might wish to receive calls. U.S. Pat. No. 6,711,239 is hereby incorporated by reference.
It is also known in the art for telephones to announce a caller ID using recorded voice or voice syntheses. There is no teaching in the prior art to use a unique ring to announce who is calling.
It would be advantageous, especially on a cellular telephone, to be able to assign a unique ring to an incoming call or a transferred call that comes from a particular caller or a particular group of callers such as family members. Different rings could identify different groups. Identification could be based on incoming caller ID and an internal address book.